Consuming bodies: Health and work in the cane fields in Xinavane, Mozambique

Abstract

Sugar produced on large estates of the Zambezi River Valley was one of Mozambique’s major exports in the colonial period but production declined radically in the course of the postindependence war. Now, with the entry of multinational sugar conglomerates, cane is growing again, beginning somewhat improbably in the water-starved Incomati Valley. Using a case generally regarded as a success, the Tongaat Hulett mill-plantation complex at Xinavane, this paper focuses on the consequences of the organisation of plantation work on the health of workers, their families and surrounding communities. It shows that the profitability of investment in the technological modernisation of milling, drainage and irrigation remains dependent on enduring forms of labour recruitment, modes of payment and organisation of work that are debilitating for individual and public health.